The New York Times touted President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday just a few years after negatively reporting on former President Donald Trump’s $200 billion plan.
The differences began right off the bat, with Biden’s plan headlined as one that would “rebuild infrastructure and reshape the economy” and Trump’s far less expensive plan previously condemned for putting the “burden on state and private money.”
The 2018 piece about Trump also questioned his ability to come up with the funding over the course of 10 years, while the latest piece decidedly declared that Biden “embraced the opportunity to use federal spending.”
Townhall opinion contributor Eddie Zipperer provided a side-by-side of the two vastly different descriptions in a tweet Wednesday morning.
NYT coverage of Trump’s $200 billion over 10 years infrastructure plan vs. NYT coverage of Biden’s $2 trillion over 8 years infrastructure plan: pic.twitter.com/qDieCdvlqV
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) March 31, 2021
The newspaper’s differing coverage was not lost among other members of the media, with The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway dubbing it “straight-up propaganda.” CNN’s Brian Stelter noticed the glowing profile as well, pointing out the difference compared to a write-up in The Washington Post.
“Quite different banners about Biden’s rebuilding plan atop WaPo and NYT,” Stelter noted along with pictures of The Post’s and NYT’s front pages.
Yep. Brazen, cartoonish, straight-up propaganda. As if written by White House staff for the most gullible and easily controlled idiots in the country. https://t.co/wJniv9f1Pq
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 1, 2021
Quite different banners about Biden’s rebuilding plan atop WaPo and NYT pic.twitter.com/wdutAbXxoI
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 1, 2021
Gee, are there taxes involved? https://t.co/xWoFbD6ldW
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) April 1, 2021
“Republicans and business groups criticized those tax proposals, calling them nonstarters for bipartisan negotiations. Mr. Biden acknowledged the criticism, even as he defended asking companies to pay more in taxes. And he said he would continue to work on winning Republican support for his proposal,” the NYT’s website piece briefly noted in the middle of the lengthy article.
The Times’ past piece on Trump’s plan included a lengthy portion dedicated to criticisms.
“It’s hard to get the $200 billion to $1.5 trillion, if you do the arithmetic,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the NYT regarding Trump’s plan.
The piece on Biden’s plan dedicated large, in-depth chunks explaining various updates, such as its proposal to create a “Clean Electricity Standard” and the focus on climate change.
In noting the corporate tax increase necessary for Biden’s plan, the NYT referring to Biden’s “sense of tax fairness.” (RELATED: Pelosi, Schumer Want To Turn Trump’s Infrastructure Plan Into A Climate Change Bill)
“The president appealed to a sense of tax fairness in defending those plans, and he said the plan would deliver concrete improvements to standards of living for Americans while meeting the challenge of competition from China and showing the world that democratic capitalism still works,” the NYT’s most recent article reads.